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Human rights situation needs to improve: survey

The nation's human-rights situation is middling, with improvement needed in the areas of elderly and disability rights, this year's Taiwan Human Rights Indicator Survey released yesterday showed.

The survey, conducted jointly by the Chinese Association for Human Rights and the National Chengchi University College of Social Sciences, was based on 10 indicators: judicial rights, political rights, economic rights, women's rights, children's rights, rights of the elderly, laborers' rights, rights of the disabled, environmental rights and educational rights.

The survey showed that the rights of the elderly scored lowest of all -- 2.55 on a scale of 1 to 5.

Wang Yun-tung (王雲東), the academic in charge of the rights of the elderly survey, said during the news conference accompanying the release of the report that issues such as whether the income of the elderly were sufficient to cover their life expenses and ensure that they could afford to live in safe and suitable environments were some of the main concerns raised by the respondents.

Safety, respect

The survey indicated that respondents were concerned that they are unable to walk and use public transportation with safety, comfort and respect.

James Hsueh, (薛承泰), commissioner of the Taipei City Social Welfare Department, said Taiwan would become an aging society around 2016 and that as a result the country should immediately consider how to use its wealth to improve the life and welfare of its older population.

The survey also said that the country has not done enough to remedy the situation.

On the issue of disability rights, the country obtained a score of2.70.

As for women's right, the issue of women's personal security scored 2.48, indicating abuse of women, domestic-violence and sexual assault and harassment also were key concerns.

Education rights obtained a score of 3.18, and judicial rights scored 3.15 -- the highest results obtained.

On the issue of judicial rights, survey questions dealt with the investigation process conducted by police and prosecutors, the trial process, detention and imprisonment and the protection of victims of crimes.

Chen Jung-chuang (陳榮傳), the academic in charge of the judicial-rights survey, said that while the respondents were satisfied with the human rights situation as pertains to prosecutors investigation process, scores on the imprisonment stage and the protection of victims of crimes has dropped this year.

`Delphi method'

Chairman of the association Lee Yun-ran (李永然) said the survey adopted the "Delphi method," an established and well-regarded survey method for the gathering of opinions on a series of topics.

The association has been conducting the annual human-rights indicator survey since 1991. New indicators and categories were gradually added over the years. Each indicator is polled separately.
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